On Thursday, White House Border Czar Tom Homan claimed the Trump Administration would "draw down" operations by ICE and CBP in Minnesota noting, "Members of the community are not the targets of our operations."
Evidently, the ICE and CBP agents in the field did not get Homan's memo or perhaps they simply disregarded it. The same day Homan spoke, an incident took place in St. Peter, Minnesota - about 70 miles southwest of Minneapolis:
The resident, a woman, had been observing and recording video of immigration enforcement actions from her car Thursday afternoon when agents took her into custody.
The woman, who did not want to be identified because she fears for her safety, is a U.S. citizen and a resident of St. Peter. She told MPR News in an interview that she was out in the community in her car, tracking the movements of federal agents, and recording them on a dash cam.
She shared that video with us. Agents in three vehicles began chasing her and trying to force her to pull over. Eventually they box her in, three agents get out of the car in front of her, with their guns drawn and they try to force her out of her vehicle.
“Get out of the car! Get out of the car,” the agents scream at her repeatedly, while she calmly responds, “No. I will not get out of the car.”
While she's alone in the car, the woman can be heard talking with other observers on speaker phone and she tells them to call 911. The agents open the door, which unlocked automatically when she put the gearshift in park, they drag her out and force her to the ground. She said the agents were overly aggressive and physical as they pinned her down and handcuffed her, leaving her with multiple cuts, scrapes and bruises.
The woman’s husband eventually arrives and tries to intervene, and he made a separate recording of the interaction on his phone. He tells the agents not to search her car because they don't have a warrant and it would be an illegal search. The agents appear dismissive of his constitutional concerns.
"I'm not getting into the legality of everything," one agent responds tersely.
MPR News interviewed the woman and her husband, who also doesn't want to be identified, fearing retaliation.
So only hours after Honan publicly assures that members of the community are not the target of ICE operations, ICE agents pull their guns on a woman observing them from their car, forcibly remove her from her vehicle and place her under arrest. When the woman's husband tells them not to search the car without a warrant, one of the ICE officers replies, "I'm not getting into the legality of everything."
What this statement tells me is that ICE continues to operate in Minnesota with impunity. The fact one of their officers feels comfortable saying he will not get into "the legality of everything" means that they have been told they are not bound by the law and that Honan's statement is meant only for public consumption and has no bearing on policy and procedures.
All things considered, this woman is quite lucky as the husband got hold of the St. Peter chief of police who evidently intervened because ICE turned her over to him shortly after her arrest. Under other circumstances, however, she could have easily become another Renee Good or Alex Pretti.
If the incident in St. Peter is any indication; ICE will continue to rough up members of the community who see fit to scrutinize their actions.
In which case, it is only matter of time before ICE executes another U.S. citizen in Minnesota.
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